Return of the Kings: Superchunk!

I was/am obsessed with Superchunk. Obsessed is maybe too strong a word, but it'll do. I saw them in (I think) November 1992 at Trax in Charlottesville, VA. I hadn't really heard them at the time, but I'd heard they were a great punk band. They were really really funny looking. I think Laura was wearing a grubby dress and a feather boa. The rest of them looked like they just came up out of the sewers. They were SO LOUD and they flew around the stage like maniacs. I stage dove into a crowd that was far too thin to warrant such acrobatics. I bashed up my elbow pretty bad. But you know, I thought then that that was what you did at punk shows.

And you know, Superchunk was definitely a punk band then. Not an indie band, or an indie/punk band, but an outright PUNK punk band. Fast loud nerd rage. I bought the VHS concert video "Take the Tube" and must have watched it 100 times. In it, they describe themselves as the "Kings of Punk" and I kind of think they mean it ironically and seriously at the same time. Anyway, they were a punk band then and I think they stayed one until ``Foolish" came out. I love that album and the ones after it, but there was a move from punk to indie and I always missed the punk.

No one in their right mind would call their new album punk rock, but on it you can hear them getting back to their roots a bit. And so, yeah, I'm happy of that.